DUSHANBE, January 19, 2011, Asia-Plus — Atovullo Raqibov from Fayzobod district and his family have spent an overnight in Ombudsman’s Office in Dushanbe but failed to meet with him over demolition of their house in the Zarkamar district in Fayzobod.
As it had been reported earlier, the house of the Raqibov family was demolished by local authorities in 2009, though the family had all necessary documents, including the certificate of land use right.
Atovullo Raqibov and his family gathered outside the Ombudsman’s office in Dushanbe at 9:00 am of January 17. He told Asia-Plus on Monday that they went through all instances but failed to find solution to the problem. “At the end of 2010, we applied to Tajik Ombudsman Zarif Alizoda and he promised to examine the issue,” said Raqibov, “More than a month has passed since that time, but we have not yet received any reply. That is why my wife, I and our five children have decided to stand outside the Ombudsman’s office until our problem is solved.”
Atovullo told Asia-Plus on Tuesday that they spent overnight within the Ombudsman’s office but failed to meet with him. “They told us that he is out of office,” said Raqibov, “On Tuesday at around 8:00 am, officers from the police department in Dushanbe’s Ismoili Somoni district came. They promised to help and took us to the police department. We spent there a couple of hours and they then took us the Fayzobod police department.”
After a long wait, the Fayzobod police authorities said that they must go home and wait for arrival of Fayzobod chairman officers who was in Dushanbe to attend the government session. “They promised that they will invite us as soon as the district chairman arrives.”
According to Raqibov, their house was demolished in July 2009, though they had all necessary documents. “Local authorities, however, claimed that our residential building did not allegedly comply with the district plan,” said Raqibov, “A cart road leading to six residential buildings behind our house was to run through that area. There is a roundabout route; it is enough to drive just little more than one hundred meters. However, they decided that the road must run through our house. I was in Russia that time to earn money to keep my family; I was forced to return home and I am currently not working for more than a year, because I am forced to visit courts. All this time, we have stayed with our relatives.”
In the meantime, Asia-Plus failed to get in touch with Tajik Ombudsman by phone.
